Reflection is yet to be fully understood as a concept, practice and experience in many English language teacher education programmes. The calls for data-led studies to prove its benefits and to make the concept less vague continue against a new argument that academic presentations of reflective inquiry may be flawed because teachers perceive reflection differently. Studies suggest that many trainees, teachers and teacher educators still do not understand reflection, and that rejections or fleeting tolerance of reflection by teachers or trainees may be connected to top-down approaches to teaching reflective practice. In a two year exploratory, interpretive research study of Nigerian English language teachers, the Nigerian ELT context is explored for evidence of reflective inquiry. The study integrates classroom explorations, teacher group meetings, focus group and individual interviews that aim to project the voices of participants. Reflection is identified in the context in teachers who used it intuitively and through those who have participated in a formal reflective international teacher development course. Findings show that reflection is multifaceted, distinctively construed and used for specific purposes. Four types of reflection are identified: learner-centred reflection; teacher-centred reflection; skill-centred reflection and knowledge-centred reflection. By comparing the two groups of participants’ perspectives of reflection and their use of reflection, the benefit and potential of reflection to bring change and development in the context is highlighted. The study shows that as participants progress through the spectrum of reflection-in-use that was identified in the study, they make sense of teaching and learning and of themselves as teachers; moving from intuitive encounters of reflection-in-use to the more explicit zones of systematic reflection. The study concludes that because reflection is multifaceted and used in specific ways, teacher educators will need to develop specific and relevant learning tools to teach it in more teacher-centred ways.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:595756 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Hyacinth, Timi B. |
| Publisher | University of Warwick |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/59716/ |
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